


Break

by Fangirlwriting



Series: Creative Trade [8]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: And Being Seen As One, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders is a Good Friend, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders is a Light Side, Gen, Logic | Logan Sanders Is A Good Friend, Look At Them I'm So Proud, Morality | Patton Sanders is a Good Friend, and a good brother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 00:08:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29359278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirlwriting/pseuds/Fangirlwriting
Summary: The frog dissection brings many consequences, some good and expected, some bad and unexpected.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Deceit | Janus Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Logic | Logan Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders
Series: Creative Trade [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1991227
Comments: 11
Kudos: 24





	Break

It had been far too long since Roman had taken a break. He had expected that once they managed to get through to Patton and Logan, his workload would lessen a little bit, but what happened turned out to be the exact opposite. They’d had to work out a lot of logistics about how to make their frog dissection plan work, and while that had mostly been Logan’s job, everyone had been a little bit involved due to how important this plan had suddenly become.

Thomas had been fascinated by the idea as soon as they brought it up, as Roman suspected he would be. Generally if both of your creativities agreed on an idea, you were going to like it.

Working with Thomas was… Roman didn’t even have words. It was something he’d never actually expected to get to do. Actually, it seemed to be something that Remus never expected to actually get to do, either. Of course Roman absolutely adored Thomas, despite the fact that he’d never actually seen anything Roman created. Maybe that could change soon… but for now this was still for Remus. The three of them went over the lesson plan, discussing how to make the idea connect with what they were working on, how to pitch the idea to the kids (Roman had gotten to write a speech), and how to keep everyone safe. That part was for Virgil.

Roman also spent a fair amount of time standing back and letting Remus take over. This was his idea, after all, and it was nice to see the way that he lit up explaining it to Thomas. Thomas seemed to get more excited too, actually, and Roman often saw the two of them begin to work off of each other, each growing more and more passionate about what they were trying to accomplish as the other did the same. He could safely say he’d never seen Remus happier.

Patton seemed to agree, as evidenced by the day he appeared beside Roman to watch for a little bit. Roman tensed up, and prepared himself to snap at Patton if he had to (although he really didn’t want to do so again), but to his surprise, after about ten seconds Patton turned to him looking incredibly regretful.

“I haven’t seen him this happy in years,” Patton said softly.

Roman nodded, smiling a little. “Yeah, me too.”

Patton looked at Roman for another second. “Princey?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

Roman smiled a little. “Anytime.”

Patton nodded and turned back to watch Remus and Thomas again.

“No, seriously, anytime you want me to tell you to get the stick out of your ass, you just let me know.”

“Okay,” Patton said, elbowing Roman half jokingly. “Watch your language.”

Roman chuckled.

Logan was often present at Thomas and Remus’ brainstorming sessions too, and watching him get excited was actually just as nice. Logan often remarked how much he loved science, but Roman had never gotten the chance to see him in action before. He clearly lit up at the idea of teaching just as much as Remus did about the idea of creating. And watching the two of them, along with Thomas, work together was… astonishingly loud, for one. The way that Thomas and Remus could make each other happier was almost doubled if you threw Logan into the mix too. When Roman joined those sessions, it was incredibly easy to get swept up in the energy and lose hours of time without even noticing. By the time he took stock after the first week, they had gotten the frog dissection lesson figured out, and added quite a few possibilities for more “Remus-inspired” lessons in the future as well.

Patton was not as involved in this part of the process. Roman could see him beginning to feel left out, and made an effort to include him where he could, but in many ways this wasn’t his area of expertise, and he wasn’t quite sure what to do for a while.

He got an idea by, of all things, shutting his door one morning.

“Hey, Pat, can I run something by you?” he asked after breakfast. Patton turned from where he was washing the dishes and smiled.

“Of course! I’m… always willing to hear you out, and… discuss?”

Well, Roman could definitely appreciate how hard he was trying. “I was wondering if you wanted to decorate today.”

Patton blinked in surprise. “Oh.”

“I’m just thinking that there’s not a ton of color around here, and I think we could all benefit from a commons that feels a little more lived in.”

“And you don’t want to ask Remus?” Patton asked, tipping his head.

“Nope. I want to ask you.”

Patton smiled a little wider. “You know, that sounds nice, kiddo. Let me finish up here and then we can look at some pictures for a start.”

Patton, it turned out, had a plethora of pictures. They hung up quite a few from birthdays over the years, for the sides, and for Thomas. Roman also saw one that he must have taken at a brainstorming session the other day, one where Roman, Remus, and Logan were all involved.

“I just like seeing all my kiddos happy,” Patton said when he asked about it.

Roman smiled at that and gave Patton a fond nudge in the side (mostly because a hug would definitely feel too awkward).

But while all of the activity lately had been both refreshing and exciting, it was also exhausting, and by the time Roman crawled into bed every night it was late and his head barely hit the pillow before he was out like a light.

The day of the actual frog dissection came up quickly, and the kids were clearly excited when they walked into the class to see the stations set up on every table.

All four of the sides were in the class that day. Remus was practically vibrating with excitement, and it was clearly rubbing off on Thomas, who hadn’t stopped smiling all morning. Roman was quite excited himself, and Logan had remarked several times that morning how happy he was to give the kids a new experience.

Roman could tell how uncomfortable Patton still was. He was trying to come up with a way to relate to him that it was okay to  _ say _ that. So far he hadn’t gotten anywhere. He would bring it up at dinner. But for now, frogs.

There was the excited chatter of kids as Thomas went over safety instructions and made sure they all knew how to handle themselves. They’d of course discussed all of this already, but Roman had pointed out that it was never a bad thing to refresh (mostly for Virgil again, he couldn’t imagine how anxious seeing all the kids with scalpels could make him).

Finally, though, Thomas finished going over instructions, and let the kids start with the first step.  And thankfully, the class went off without a hitch, and the whole time there was fascinated, happy, and somewhat grossed out commentary. “The best combination,” Remus said with a grin.

Almost a dozen kids stopped by Thomas’ desk on the way after class with bright eyes, proclaiming how much they loved it.

“Are we going to do something like that again?” Riley asked, bouncing a little on her feet.

Sarah nodded from next to her.  “Yes, please, that would be so much fun!” she called.

“I can promise you there’s some plans in the works,” Thomas said with a smile, and both girls turned to each other with another grin.

“So,” Roman said, leaning back against the chalkboard after the last kid left. “It looks like a lot of them actually enjoyed that.”

“I know!” Remus called, bouncing in place like an excited puppy. “And not just to get out of homework!”

“Yes, this really was a fantastic idea, Remus,” Logan said, giving him a smile.

“I’m certainly enjoying myself,” Thomas said with a grin of his own. “Come on, we should get set up for the next class.”

He, Remus, and Logan all headed off to do that while Remus made a joke about other ways enjoy himself that made Thomas groan. A second later, Roman glanced over to see Patton fidgeting with the sleeves of his cardigan.

“Hey,” Roman said, seeing his chance. “Is everything gucci, Pat?”

Patton looked up at him and pasted on a smile. “Oh, of course! Just happy for you guys!”

Roman raised an eyebrow. “I did grow up with Deceit, Patton. I know how to spot a lie.”

Patton sighed. “I’m just… trying not to bother you guys about it. I know why we need to include Remus more, and I really do feel awful about how much we— how much  _ I’ve _ been hurting him. It just… it still makes me uncomfortable.”

“That’s okay,” Roman said instantly. “Patton, you can be uncomfortable. Including Remus and his ideas doesn’t mean your feelings aren’t still valid too. That was  _ never _ going to be the case.”

Patton looked hesitantly over at him. “Yeah?”

Roman nodded. “Yeah.”

Patton smiled a little more. “Okay.” He looked back out at the classroom. “I really am happy that the kids enjoy it so much. I mean, they’re what this is all about, really.”

“Damn right,” Roman said, crossing his arms to emphasize his statement.

Patton shot him a half joking look. “Language.”

“Please, Patton. You can’t stop me. You can’t control me. I’m a dark side, and I wreak havoc wherever I go.”

Patton chuckled. “I’m quaking in my shoes.”

Roman’s gasped. “Was that  _ sarcasm? _ From our friendly neighborhood father figure? Oh my goodness, I  _ am _ rubbing off on you.”

Patton laughed again. “Okay, okay, stop,” he said, grinning at Roman, who grinned right back. He smiled a little more warmly the next second. “And uh, thanks.”

“Anytime,” Roman said, a little surprised to find he meant it.

…

Roman didn’t really get Saturdays off anymore. They had all been spent brainstorming for a while, so when he woke up on the Saturday after the frog dissection class and actually had nothing to do, the first thing he did was go back to sleep for another hour.

And then he went home.

God, how he missed it. He hadn’t seen Virgil or Janus in almost a month and a half at this point. And as much as he loved Remus, and was starting to very much warm up to Patton and Logan too, nothing could beat where you come from or the people you grew up with.

He wasn’t sure what he expected when he walked through the door out of his Imagination. He definitely didn’t expect a giant “Welcome Home” banner or anything like that. That would be far too silly for Janus and Virgil. But he hadn’t expected them to be… nowhere.

After a moment of debate, Roman headed for the kitchen. He could eat breakfast here today. Maybe the others would show up, and if not, he could go knock on their doors after.

Roman started to sing as he cooked an omelette, which was a common occurrence for a Saturday morning, something the light sides could now attest to as well. He finished making it, and had gotten to sit down and eat about half of it when someone else finally showed up.

“What are you doing here?”

Roman glanced up and brightened. “Virgil! Happy Saturday! You will never guess what I have to tell… you…” Roman trailed off when he noticed the glare on Virgil’s face. “Is something wrong?”

“Oh, no, why would it be? You’ve only ignored us for a month and a half, I was only going to start getting mad around the two month mark,” Virgil said, walking around past Roman and pulled out the coffee beans.

Roman winced. “Virgil, I’m—”

“Whatever. It’s whatever, Roman.”

“No it’s not. Look, I’m sorry. But things have been going really well for Remus and—”

“Oh my god, I don’t  _ care!” _ Virgil snapped. “Why would I care about Remus?”

“What— because we all agreed to help him,” Roman said, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes. “You were there too, you  _ agreed _ too.”

“Yeah,” Virgil said, crossing his own arms. “And then you vanished up into the light sides commons and never consulted us about anything. Dammit, Roman, we were supposed to do this  _ together!” _

“What are you talking about, we  _ did.” _

“No we didn’t. Janus and I helped you both come up with ideas maybe, I don’t know, three times? And the rest was you working with Remus, and  _ Logan _ of all fucking sides! You’re never even here anymore. We haven’t hung out in months.  _ We _ haven’t. You and I. So how often do you think I see Remus? Why would I care about him if I’ve had two conversations with him?”

“Look, Virgil, I said I’m—”

“I mean for fucks sake, Roman, we only told Remus our names because we expected to be working together often enough for it to be worth it! You made that worth nothing! You haven’t been sparing us a single thought, have you? And then you waltz back in here like you own the fucking place?”

“I live here!”

“No you don’t. You haven’t for months. You live with  _ them.” _ Virgil gestured angrily up at the ceiling. “Because apparently they’re the only ones that actually matter to you!”

“How could you say that?” Roman asked, finally standing up to glare at Virgil himself. “Virgil, how could you say that?”

“How could I not? You haven’t exactly been making it clear that you care. Holy hell, Roman, I told you before that I wasn’t going to do your job, and yet I still showed up to help! You just never took me up on it! So why should I care about anything having to do with Thomas’ creativity if you’re not going to at least return the favor?”

Roman jerked back like Virgil had slapped him. What… had… had he really screwed up that badly? It wasn’t like he’d expected nothing was going to change, but he’d thought… he’d thought they’d at least still care about him if they did.

Roman stared at Virgil another second, hoping he would say something else, but Virgil just continued to glare at him. Roman tried to come up with something he could say instead, but Virgil’s glare was a little much, so eventually he turned around to take a breath—

And there was Janus, standing in the hallway. By the look on his face, he’d clearly heard most of the conversation.

Roman turned back around to look at Virgil, who was still glaring, and then back around to Janus, who after a second sighed sadly and looked away.

Roman looked down and took a minute to blink the tears out of his eyes. “Fine,” he said quietly. “Sorry for interrupting your Saturday.”

He sunk back out to his room. The second he rose up he scrubbed at his eyes.

He’d been trying to  _ apologize _ for missing so much time with them. He had thought they would have missed him as much as he had, not… not been angry.

Roman walked over and sat on his bed, trying to calm his racing thoughts. Okay maybe… maybe they just needed some space.

Yeah. Yeah, that’s it. He just needed to let them cool down for a bit. They just needed a… a break. He would go talk to them after a little longer. And then he could apologize and go back to normal. It would be fine.

Roman collapsed back on his bed and blinked quickly. “It’ll be fine,” he whispered. And Janus wouldn’t sense that because it wasn’t a lie.

“ROMAN!”

Roman screamed and sat bolt upright. Remus was standing across the room from him.  _ “Roman, Roman get up, no more sleeping, you have to see this!” _ Remus cried, rushing across the room and grabbing Roman by the arm. Before Roman could say anything, he sank them both out.

They reappeared in Remus’ side of the Imagination.  _ “Look!” _ Remus yelled, pointing at the ground in front of them.

Roman looked down to see… frogs. He turned to look at Remus. “Did… did you make those yourself?” he breathed.

“Yeah! Yeah I did! And I can do it again! Look!” He pointed at a different section of the blank empty void, and suddenly it wasn’t empty because there were frogs in it. And then another section, and more frogs. And another. And another.

“And I can make them dead too!” Remus cried in glee, and suddenly there was a huge pile of rotting frogs right in front of them.

“Jesus, gross!” Roman called, plugging his nose. But somehow, he was starting to smile, just a little.

“Roman, I did it myself!” Remus cried, beaming at him. “This means I’m not a lost cause! I could get my Imagination back some day!”

Roman smiled warmly and pulled Remus into a hug, that Remus returned by squeezing way too tightly. “You were  _ never _ a lost cause, Remus,” Roman said. “Not ever. I’m so proud of you.”

“Hey, now don’t go getting sappy on me,” Remus said, but he was still grinning as he pushed Roman back to arms length. “Thank you. I couldn’t have done this without you.”

“You can,” Roman said. “You just did. And you will.”

Remus looked thrilled at the thought. “Things really are getting better, Ro-bro,” he whispered, turning to look at the frogs again.

Roman winced, and shook himself before Remus turned back around. “Yeah,” he said with a nod, and a partially real smile. “They are.”


End file.
